Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Wayne Scott's Slimeball Petulance, Updated

[We originally reported this story last Friday. Today's Willamette Week threatens to turn Scott from a piece of dung into an entire pile; scroll to the bottom for the update...]

Apparently the Republican leadership in the Oregon House is doing its best to pretend that they're still in power; as early as the first day of the new legislative session they were pulling stupid, petty crap that was doomed to failure simply because they don't have the votes. Had the Republicans been in the majority, a last-minute bait and switch might have caught Speaker Merkley and the Democrats off-guard; as it was, they were definitely surprised to suddenly see opposition on a bill the GOP leadership had signed off on the previous weekend. But when you've got 31 votes, trick-play amendments don't work, and eventually the original bill passed with all but four Republicans on board.

We can laugh and shake our heads at their thick skulls about that one, but what happened after Minority Leader Wayne Scott's gambit was crushed is far less dismissable as petulant monkeyshines. Our Oregon relates the story:

[Losing the motion has] gotta hurt and we guess [Scott] had to take it out on someone. That someone turned out to be Rep. Mitch Greenlick.

Rep. Greenlick is laid up after a bad accident. The ethics vote was so important to him though, that he made it to Salem in an ambulance for the floor vote on Monday. Word in Salem is that even after Scott knew he was going to lose the fight, he kept Rep. Greenlick waiting in a wheelchair all day by refusing to allow a courtesy vote on the bill.

Not wanting to pass along a rumor without checking up on it, we asked Russ Kelley from the Speaker's Office if it was a true story:

Yes. That is true [that Scott deliberately delayed the vote]. My understanding is that we asked them to give us a courtesy vote from their caucus, but they wouldn’t guarantee one, forcing Mitch to stick around, in pain, with the medical transport van waiting outside, until the vote was over

If I understand the custom properly, the Democrats asked the Republicans to have one of their caucus abstain, in order to withdraw a "no" vote and in so doing equalize the missing "yea" vote Greenlick would have cast. What makes this particularly egregious and hurtful is that Scott had to know the bill was going to pass--and that it wouldn't be anywhere near close. He could have granted 20 courtesy votes, and it wouldn't have mattered. Maybe if the vote was going down to the wire, you could forgive that kind of behavior, but the bill was going to pass regardless of Greenlick's presence and making the senior member of the chamber sit around in pain just to be a dick...unbelievable.

Truth be told, while I don't disagree at all with Carla about it, calling people "moronic fucktard" in my posts isn't generally my style--even if it's so richly deserved. But I made a special request to write this particular piece, because coming from Carla it may not have raised an eyebrow to see her so blunt: Wayne Scott is a pathetic disgrace to Oregon's legislature and people. You and your slimy, totally self-serving associates LOST, get it? Maybe you found enough good old boys in Canby to squeeze 50-odd percent out of your district, but your sleazy way of doing things is over, done, finished--and no amount of ugly disrespect to your colleagues is going to change that or help you get your way again.

In fact, all it does is prove to the state that it was right to kick you off the Majority Leader's perch...and that come 2008, Mike Caudle (who is running against him again) should get a lot more help sending your chump ass back to Clackamas. You deserve to be slipped an Ex-Lax mickey and then barred from the Capitol's bathrooms, but since the new leadership has far too much class for that, let me just say Fuck You instead. Fuck you, Wayne.

Update 1/13 11AM--Point of clarification: there is of course no specific confirmation that Scott chose to delay the vote and deny a courtesy vote to cover Greenlick's absence in order to make Greenlick's day miserable. However, it is true that he delayed the vote for an extended period, and refused a courtesy vote to one of his colleagues so that the member could leave the chamber. That Greenlick had been in an accident and was on wheels could not have escaped his notice.

Update 1/17 9AM--We're trying to get in contact with the hotel, and we've been speaking with Rep. Greenlick's office, but as WWeek points out there may yet be deeper depths to which Wayne Scott has sunk--not only making Greenlick uncomfortable while in the Capitol, but also at Scott's own Salem Comfort Suites, where the former had booked a wheelchair-accessible room in anticipation of arriving for the opening festivities and votes. WWeek takes over:

[T]he unkindest cut came the following day when a Salem hotel owned by Scott reneged on a handicap-access room Greenlick had been discussing with the hotel for several days. "It's hard not to draw the conclusion that the owner had something to do with it," Greenlick told Murmurs. Scott's spokesman didn't return a call seeking comment.

Did Scott and/or his staff have something to do with it? If they did, they sure wouldn't say--but what an amazing coincidence it all is! It's a wonder they didn't slash the tires of the ambulance Greenlick came in. We hear that the hotel was a popular one with legislators in the past, not least because apparently they got a sweetheart deal on accomodations from the rotund former Majority Leader. Looks like that coupon may have expired with his monarchial reign--although one assumes Scott will still rent to Democrats at the regular rack rate of $110...right? But if you think their pillows are getting fluffed, forget it. And the mints? Straight from the pillow to the trash can if I were you, Dems...